John William Mason

Private John William Mason, enlisted at Nottingham on 28th July 1904 and served with the 2nd Battalion Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment. He landed in France on 8th September 1914 and died of wounds at sea onboard HMHS Carisbrooke Castle on 1st October 1914. He was buried at sea and is commemorated on the Hollybrook Memorial, Southampton.

Nottingham Evening Post, ‘Deaths’, 17 October 1914: ‘Mason. At sea, on the Carisbrooke Castle, from wounds received in action, JW Mason, 2nd Sherwood Foresters, late of 103 Bateman-street, Hyson Green. Rest in peace.’Nottingham Evening Post, 20 October 1914, photograph with caption: 'Mason. At sea on the Carisbrook Castle from wounds received in action, JW Mason, 2nd Bn Sherwood Foresters, late of 103 Bateman Street, Hyson Green, age 35. Leaves widow and two children.' (www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk)www.roll-of-honour.com/Ships/HMHSCarisbrookCastle.html'Four years into reserve service, fate brought the World to war, and the CARISBROOK CASTLE began again in military duty. Commandeered two days before the formal declaration of war in 1914, she started as a hospital ship with 439 beds, and crossed the English Channel to bring wounded troops home from the Western Front. She shifted roles to that of an Army Troop Ship in the Mediterranean for most of the war. She returned to Union-Castle service in 1919, sailing in Cape mail service until the launch of Union-Castle’s WINDSOR CASTLE, and was laid up at Netlev and retired from all duties in 1922.'